How The UFC Dismantled The Anonymous Hackers - Elite Daily

Back in January of 2012, the UFC squared up to fight. No, not in the octagon. The UFC was virtually and verbally fighting against Anonymous – the infamous network of internet hackers.

Now this is not breaking news, nor is there any new information that has been brought to light. The reason for this article is to highlight UFC President Dana White's actions for a lesson for success on why you must be ruthless and eager to take on your competitors and enemies in business.

Establishing yourself takes balls. If you are soft, timid and afraid of confrontation, then this article is not for you. In fact, the success-filled upper echelon of the world may also not be for you. In order to rise to the top, you must be willing to do whatever it takes; this is a task not for the feint of heart.

Once you have attained success, you will spend much time and energy defending your throne. You become public enemy number one by the entirety of the rising ambitious and Elite of Generation-Y looking to take the throne for themselves.

It becomes a "kill or be killed" environment. You must be ruthless is obliterating your competition and you must squash any public or private attempts by your enemies to rob you of your success.

I'm going to come after you harder. If you want to fight me, you better pack a fucking lunch, man. Because we're gonna go until somebody wins and somebody loses
– Dana White

And this is exactly what happened in January when the UFC took on Anonymous.

The battle-tested entrepreneur Dana White embodies these necessary qualities for success, and he openly displayed them when the time came for the UFC to take on Anonymous.

Let's start from the beginning. Remember the SOPA and PIPA Acts that wanted to put an end to online piracy by regulating the internet? In the end, public disapproval and protest ended any hopes of these acts from passing into legislation while companies that openly supported the bills were left holding their dicks in their hands.

UFC's parent company was one of these supporters, which gave Anonymous an excuse to organize a decentralized attack against UFC's website and Dana White, personally. What happened next is something that cannot be summarized or explained, as Dana White took on the hacker group with the whole world watching in an Elite fashion.

I was in Chicago for a fight when I found out these Anonymous guys had started crashing our site. During an interview, I looked right into the camera and dared them to do it again.
I said, 'Who do you think I am, eBay? I'm in the fight business. I could give a shit if you knock my website down. Do it again! Go ahead. I dare you!'

And Anonymous took the bait. The network of hackers continued to attack the UFC, causing complete disruption for anyone watching the fights online or for anyone on their website.

You're gonna send some pizzas to my house and put my Social Security number out? Who gives a shit? If people really wanted to get your Social Security number, I'm sure they could find it. I'm supposed to bow down to you guys now?

Anonymous supporters started a massive wave of weird and disturbing tweets sent to Dana White, like "We're watching you" and "We can find you".

You get these guys engaged, you get 'em going, and that's when you get the FBI involved. Because there's so much piracy of UFC merchandise, the FBI was already monitoring everything that was happening.

Not only was the FBI watching this war unfold. So was the Department of Homeland Security. Anonymous claims to be a "liberator" – a promoter of online freedom. That became hard to believe after they attacked the FBI, Justice Department and other U.S. government entities.

After that, they basically became terrorists and the Department of Homeland Security was looking for any way to take them down. Because Dana White decided to fight back, Anonymous continuously attacked them (straying from their usual methods based on the element of surprise).

And it helps when they know when and where the hackers are going to attack. So I put my chin out there, and we knew they were gonna punch it. Two weeks after they attacked me, a lot of them started getting busted. I think we contributed to that.

So what is Dana White's lesson to other entrepreneurs? Never back down. Do not start the fight, but always finish it. In a time when the Elite of the world are constantly targeted by those that want the crown for themselves, or by those with ideological differences, you must be prepared for war.

I stood up to these guys and challenged them when nobody else would. I've got no problem telling anybody in the world that this is how it went down. Yeah, they leaked some info and dropped our website for a couple of days, but I'm not gonna back down to these Internet bullies.
If there are people out there who believe that they can steal or make money off of your intellectual property, I don't care who they are. You go after them, guns a-blazin', man. Guns a-blazin'.